Bullpen Report: May 14, 2015

Luke Gregerson recently spent close to a week away from his teammates in order to deal with a personal matter, but returned to the hill yesterday in a scoreless inning of work. However, the 31-year-old right-hander once again left the team tonight to deal with an undisclosed personal matter, leaving Chad Qualls to fend off the Blue Jays in the ninth-inning in a save situation. And that he did, on just 12 pitches. Qualls retired Toronto’s 5-6-7 hitters consecutively — two by ground out, one via strikeout — to notch his fourth save in five opportunities this season. Gregerson is expected back with the team tomorrow (Friday, 5/15) and should assume the closer’s role, unless the Astros’ brass decides to provide the righty with an opportunity to get some work in during a lower leverage situation.

It feels like I haven’t been able to write up Aroldis Chapman this season as much I have in recent years, so I’m happy the southpaw converted his seventh save today. The 27-year-old is 2-2 on the season, a perfect 7-for-7 in save chances, sports a 1.17 ERA (1.45 FIP) and owned a 27.3% strikeout-minus-walk rate entering today.

Though we’re just in May, Chapman’s K%-BB% is down quite a bit from last season’s 40.6% K%-BB% which was best in the bigs among qualified relievers. He’s actually inducing swinging strikes at a 21.5% clip, a career-high for the flamethrowing Cuban, but not as many batters are striking out. Maybe it could be that the average velocity on his slider (87.3 mph) is down a tick from last season’s readings (88.5 mph), although it’s not too far off from his career 87.8 mph. Or it could be that he’s pounding the zone more than he ever has in the past (51.7% Zone%) and batters are just connecting and putting the ball in play. At any rate, Chapman is still the top closer to own in my book, but there are a few that are closing the gap.

Following today’s game, the Rays activated reliever Jake McGee from the 15-day disabled list. According to the Rays’ skipper, Brad Boxberger, Jake McGee and Kevin Jepsen could all be used in save situations based on leverage and matchups. This really doesn’t do us any favors in the fantasy community, but I’m guessing it’s going to be hard not to put Boxberger on the mound in a save situation as long as the matchups are reasonably in his favor, especially since McGee has some reverse platoon splits over the course of his career. Boxberger is a perfect 10-for-10 on the season in save chances with a 1.26 ERA (1.57 FIP) and a 25.9% K%-BB%. If you’re chasing saves, you should be adding McGee, but don’t get too excited as I think the youngster still gets the bulk of the save chances going forward as long as he keeps it together. Jepsen is a guy worth owning in leagues that reward holds and solds (saves+holds), but that’s it. Leaving this situation “green” for the time being.

Quick Hitters: Hector Rondon surrendered a leadoff single to Daniel Murphy, then retired three Metropolitans in-a-row to secure his eighth save of the season in a 6-5 win for the Cubs. Rondon is now 8-of-9 in save opportunities on the year with a 2.81 ERA (3.02 FIP). Jonathan Papelbon took to the hill with one out in the ninth to rescue Ken Giles and the Phillies after the Pirates plated a run. It wasn’t pretty, but Papelbon notched his eighth save of the season in just two-thirds of work. Trevor Rosenthal (12) and Greg Holland (7) also picked up saves today. But Rosenthal’s was of the four out variety in which the right-hander fanned three.

Closer Grid:

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]